Never has a designer collection been the subject of such sustained and vociferous debate. Despite the fact that Jeremy Scott's debut collection for Moschino was unveiled almost five months ago during Milan Fashion Week, the criticism rages on. Yesterday, The Observer reported that health campaigners had recently criticised the Italian fashion house for promoting an unhealthy diet. 'My problem is that if kids [are using these iPhone cases] they are buying into the whole fast-food concept' said obesity expert and GP Dr Ian Campbell.
But, to state the obvious, we're already surrounded by the 'fast food concept' and, as millennials, have been for our entire lives. A treat from the age of five was/is always a Happy Meal, and who else remembers the mini marshmallow machine in Pizza Hut with nostalgic relish? From teenage years spent salivating over Marissa and Summer’s perfect perma-tanned life in The O.C. – where near every meal was a burger and shake in the Pier Diner – to a high street which offers a KFC for the drunk, a Subway for the hungover, a seemingly guilt-free 500 kcal frappaccino in Starbucks - there is no doubt that fast food is everywhere….. regardless of what iPhone case we use.
‘Whilst the occasional McDonald’s meal is not a problem, to present it as a fashion is disappointing’ says Dr Ian Campbell. This feels a bit like saying that if you have a Budweiser iPhone case (well, you might) that you're going to get blind drunk on beer every day. Enjoying a rubberized packet of fries, in a time when kitsch 90s logomania is at an all-time high, is not going to make you crave a burger every day. You aren’t going to look at it and go ‘I must eat a fry now. I see fry, I eat fry. I am fry.’ Unless you are eight, of course, without the wherewithal to know how to feed yourself properly - and then frankly your mother shouldn’t be buying you a £45 designer iPhone case anyway.
Sure, it’s ironic that an industry which traditionally celebrates slim-hipped women is so into junk food, but you could also argue that it’s ironic that politicians peddling family values sire children out of wedlock (hey Arnold.) We live in a deeply hypocritical world and trying to heap all this on one joyfully primary-coloured fashion show – which did wonders for injecting some fun into a haughty Milanese fashion scene – seems both inane and insane.
Fashion is an art form (though you might disagree) and with all art, comes a degree of social commentary and irony. Jeremy Scott is not the first designer to reference junk food in his work; fashion label Lazy Oaf currently has a sweater which has the word ‘pizza’ on it, jewellery label Goldie Rox sells gold-plated mini burger and fry jewellery, whilst hugely popular US e-store Shop Jeen has an entire range devoted to pizzas, hamburgers, cupcakes, donuts and their merry friends. And don't forget that Solange's infamous weapon of choice in the recent elevator-gate was Anya Hindmarch's crisp packet clutch. In 2009 Giles Deacon made a bespoke dress for Cadbury Caramel Bunny’s. In 2011, US donut chain Krispy Kreme teamed up with Glamour magazine to produce ‘fashion-inspired donuts’ for London Fashion Week.... the list goes on. Most iconically, who can forget Andy Warhol (an artist as entrenched in the fashion scene as he was the art world) and his hamburger print?
Moschino isn't sexualising fast food here. We aren’t talking about McDonald’s-esque crotchless panties. There are no Ronald McDonald plunging jumpsuits with visible butt cracks and tits dipped in BBQ sauce. The entire collection is infinitely more fun and kitsch than it is sexually alluring - unlike the adverts of many fast food chains. Take US burger chain Carl Jr, whose singular mode of advertising is to celebrate a golden skinned, tawny haired model in the tiniest of dresses – variously Nina Agdal, Padma Lakshmi and Kate Upton – biting into a five-layer burger. If fast food companies can use* fashion* models to haul ass on their products, why can’t the fashion industry use fast food to haul theirs?
Maybe neither should do either - which is a much more informed and fruitful scope for debate than focusing on a single collection by Moschino. And rather than blaming a fashion collection for an ever-increasing and long-existing epidemic such as obesity, why aren't we educating the younger generation about how to eat healthily - which will be far more productive than obsessing over which iPhone case they choose to buy.
Anyway, like the occasional McDonalds you'll enjoy when hungover, no-one is going to legitimately kit themselves out in Moschino’s entire AW14 collection anyway, except perhaps Anna Della Russo. And if you find the whole thing too garish and obvious by half, I wouldn't worry - it’s expensive and like all ‘it’ collections, it will age quickly. So really, the health experts need not worry. Because in a year’s time those kids will have jacked in their french fry iPhone covers for a transparent one with a live goldfish inside. We'll check back in with you then.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.